Aziz: Indo-Pak relations have improvedIslamabad, June 28Pakistan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting Shoukat Aziz has said relations with India have “improved manifold” and asserted that Islamabad has “a strong desire” to hold dialogue with New Delhi on all issues including the Kashmir problem.

Window on Pakistan
Peace initiatives welcomed both in India, PakIf two warring neighbours decide to build confidence and
put a restrain on the use of nuclear weapons, it ought to be welcomed. In
Pakistan except for some stray newspapers owing allegiance to hardcore
fundamentalist groupings, there is a feeling of satisfaction that India and
Pakistan are on the path of peace and development.

Istanbul, June 28Anti-NATO protesters, hurling paving stones and petrol
bombs, clashed with the riot police in Istanbul today on the first day of the
NATO summit, leaving around 30 persons injured.

Anti-NATO activists try to escape from teargas during a
demonstration in Istanbul on Monday. NATO leaders are meeting for a two-day summit in which talks will be dominated by the issue of Iraq.
— AP/PTI photo

A half moon hangs over Malaysia's Seri Wawasan bridge in a clear sunset sky above Putrajaya on
Monday. Putrajaya skies were clear on Monday after a week of smoke from forest fires in Indonesia. Weather forecasters said the problem may last until heavy rains come in October.
— Reuters

6 Iraqi national guards killed
Baquba (Iraq), June 28Six members of National Guardsmen were killed today in an attack on a checkpoint north-east of the Iraqi capital by unknown gunmen armed with anti-tank rockets, a provincial police chief said.

Bangladeshi journalists with their faces covered protest against the killing of Bengali newspaper editor Humayun Kabir in Dhaka on Monday.
Kabir, editor of Dainik Janmabhumi, was killed on Sunday outside his office in a bomb attack at Khulna city, 140 km southwest of Dhaka. — AP/PTI

Riyadh, June 28Senior Saudi militant Othman al-Amri surrendered to the authorities early today after the kingdom announced a one-month amnesty for suspects, one of his cousins said.
Amri, one of 26 top militant suspects listed in December by Saudi Arabia, gave himself up early today in the southerly Asir province, said the cousin, who declined to be named.
Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of violence blamed on supporters of
Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.

Two die in rocket attack on Israel
Jerusalem, June 28Palestinian rockets fired from the Gaza Strip today
killed two persons in Israel for the first time — a three-year-old boy and a
man — in a deadly battle of wills in anticipation of an Israeli pullout. A
strong Israeli military response appeared likely after two rockets slammed into
the southern town of Sderot some 12 hours after militants blew up an army post
in the Gaza Strip, killing one soldier and wounding five others.

Cassini spacecraft ready for tryst with Saturn
Pasadena, June 28Two decades and $ 3.3 billion in the making, an international exploration of Saturn begins this week when a spacecraft slips through a gap in the planet’s shimmering rings and arcs into orbit.
After a seven-year, 3.5 billion km journey, the Cassini spacecraft will fire its
engine on Wednesday night to slow down, allowing itself to be captured by
Saturn’s gravity.

Both Hussain and Fahim filed their nominations before the deadline ended for nominations today.

A special parliamentary session has been called tomorrow to choose a new leader of Parliament who will become interim Prime Minister, until the present Finance Minister Shoukat Aziz gets elected to the lower House to replace him.

Jamali, who resigned as Prime Minister following differences with President Pervez Musharraf, had announced Hussain’s name to replace him at the parliamentary party meeting of the ruling PML (Q).

While Hussain’s election is virtually a foregone conclusion as his party PML(Q) together with its allies has a simple majority, the election could help Fahim, a senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, stake claim for the post of Leader of the Opposition, which the government recently accorded to the Islamist alliance Mushahida Majlis Amal (MMA).

Fahim, who is also the Chairman of the 14-party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), which includes deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif’s party PML(N), has very slim chance against Hussain as MMA, which has around 60 members in the NA, has decided not to support him. Meanwhile, on the eve of being endorsed as Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister, Shujaat Hussain said he would leave the Cabinet largely unchanged for the term that is expected to last less than two months.
— PTI

Islamabad, June 28
Pakistan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting Shoukat Aziz has said relations with India have “improved manifold” and asserted that Islamabad has “a strong desire” to hold dialogue with New Delhi on all issues including the Kashmir problem.

“The secretary-level talks have been held between Pakistan and India as we have a strong desire to hold dialogue with India on all issues, including the Kashmir problem,” he told The News Daily.

“Pakistan has strategic relationship with China and its relations with Iran, India and now Afghanistan have improved manifold,” he
added.

Aziz advocated the need for resolving regional security problems for taking Pakistan effectively into the 21st century. Aziz said: “In foreign relations, personal rapport works to some extent as every country makes its policies keeping in view its national interest.”
— PTI

If two warring neighbours decide to build confidence and put a restrain on the use of nuclear weapons, it ought to be welcomed. In Pakistan except for some stray newspapers owing allegiance to hardcore fundamentalist groupings, there is a feeling of satisfaction that India and Pakistan are on the path of peace and development.

Leading English newspaper Dawn wrote, “In order to reduce the risk of nuclear confrontation between them, the two neighbours have agreed to implement seven CBMs, the most important of these being a well-groomed, upgraded and secured hotline between the Directors-General of Military Operations (DGMOs) and the setting up of a similar channel between their Foreign Secretaries to prevent misunderstandings and reduce risks relevant to the use of nuclear weapons. Besides recognising that their nuclear capabilities, based on ‘their national
security imperatives’, constitute a factor for stability, the two sides committed themselves to ‘national measures’ in order to reduce the risks of accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons under their respective control. Also, they would adopt bilateral notification measures and mechanisms to prevent misunderstandings and misinterpretations by the either side.

Pakistan Times found, “The result of the Pak-India talks appears to be positive, as the two sides have moved forward on building mutual confidence between them to avert nuclear conflict. The hotline to be established at the Foreign Secretaries’ level will certainly help prevent misunderstanding and reduce risks relating to the nuclear issues. The existing hotline between DGMOs of the two countries will also be upgraded and secured. It is, nonetheless, understood that differences exist between the two countries on the respective concepts of ‘no first use’ and ‘security restraint’ of India and Pakistan. Hence, it is imperative that Pakistan should, at no stage, weaken its concept of minimum nuclear deterrence for the sake of its own
security and peace in the South Asian region.”

But Pakistan Times had a word of caution, “As Kashmir is the core issue, it will be futile to hope of normalisation of Pak-India relations if it continues to gaze in the face of the two countries.”

Abbas Rashid in Daily Times too welcomed the efforts, saying “ Pakistan has indicated that it would welcome a summit between Pakistan’s President and the new Indian Prime Minister. Perhaps such a meeting would help secure a breakthrough in some key areas. But unless summits are part of some sort of a routine, they create high expectations and leave despondency in the absence of major achievements. Hopefully, the upcoming visit by Mrs Sonia Gandhi who enjoys considerable power without the trappings of office will help pave the way for a more productive summit down the road.

Indian journalist, Sidarth Vardharajan writing in influentiual magazine Newsline appreciated the solid peace efforts. “ In all the ups and downs of the past year, it is easy to forget the very concrete gains that have already resulted from the peace process so far. For the first time since the irrational and immoral war in Siachen began nearly two decades ago, the guns have fallen silent and troops from both sides deployed in the icy waters have a reasonable chance of coming down safely. Along the entire length of the Line of Control, the ritual exchanges of fire which were a deadly fact of life for villagers on both sides no longer take place.

And people-to-people contacts, suspended by India in the wake of the terrorist attack on Parliament in December, 2001, are back with a bang. Come what may, Dr Manmohan Singh and General Pervez Musharraf, Natwar Singh and Khurshid Kasuri must ensure the irreversibility of these excellent developments.

Istanbul, June 28
Anti-NATO protesters, hurling paving stones and petrol bombs, clashed with the riot police in Istanbul today on the first day of the NATO summit, leaving around 30 persons injured. The violence erupted well away from the venue for the 26-nation two-day gathering, which was ringed by a tight security cordon.

Leftist protesters carrying red flags and shouting “Istanbul will be a graveyard for NATO” lobbed rocks and petrol-filled bottles at the police, who responded with teargas and water cannon.

Television pictures showed at least one car overturned and others smashed. Petrol bombs blazed on the ground and people ran from billowing clouds of teargas.

A hospital official said around 30 protesters and police needed treatment. State-run Anatolian news agency said 15 persons including five police officers were injured.

Some 20 persons had been detained in the protests, a police spokesman said.

The riot police and paramilitary gendarmes, backed by armoured vehicles baton, charged some 2,000 demonstrators in the Okmeydani area of Turkey’s biggest city, about 3 km west of the summit building, witnesses said.

The police also broke up a smaller crowd in the Mecidiyekoy area when they tried to march towards the summit about 3 km to the south. At least six persons were detained.

In a separate protest, Greenpeace activists, dangling from a vast suspension bridge over the Bosphorus Strait, unfurled a 30 m banner showing a dove of peace with a nuclear missile in its beak and the phrase ‘’Nukes out of NATO’’.

Meanwhile, NATO vowed today to beef up its Afghanistan peace force to 10,000. From 6,500 to help make September election secure, but diplomats said it did not yet have firm offers from allies for that many extra troops.
— Reuters

Baquba (Iraq), June 28
Six members of National Guardsmen were killed today in an attack on a checkpoint north-east of the Iraqi capital by unknown gunmen armed with anti-tank rockets, a provincial police chief said.

“The attack was launched shortly after 5 p.m. by armed men on a National Guard checkpoint at
Jalawla,” 180 km from Baghdad, said Gen Walid Khaled Abdul Salam, chief of the Diyala province.

“The assailants attacked the position using anti-tank rockets and automatic weapons, killing six members of the National Guard and wounding four others,” he said. — AFP

Riyadh, June 28
Senior Saudi militant Othman
al-Amri surrendered to the authorities early today after the kingdom announced a one-month amnesty for suspects, one of his cousins said.

Amri, one of 26 top militant suspects listed in December by Saudi Arabia, gave himself up early today in the southerly Asir province, said the cousin, who declined to be named.

Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of violence blamed on supporters of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. At least 85 policemen and civilians, many of them foreigners, have been killed in suicide bombings and shootings by militants loyal to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network, bent on toppling the kingdom’s pro-US monarchy.

A Saudi security source said
Amri, who had fought in Afghanistan, was close to Saaban al-Shihri, a militant who turned himself in last week. Shihri was not on the list of 26 suspects.

In a televised speech delivered on behalf of King Fahd last week, de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah gave militants a final chance to surrender under a limited one-month amnesty and be treated ‘’under God’s law’’.

Officials said the state would drop its claims against those who surrendered.
— Reuters

A little girl being comforted at a kindergarten yard after a rocket attack in the southern Israeli town of Sderot
on Monday. Palestinian rockets slammed into a town in southern Israel on Monday, killing two
persons, hours after militants blew up an army post in the Gaza Strip, causing the death of one soldier.
— Reuters photo

Jerusalem, June 28
Palestinian rockets fired from the Gaza Strip today killed two persons in Israel for the first time — a three-year-old boy and a man — in a deadly battle of wills in anticipation of an Israeli pullout.

A strong Israeli military response appeared likely after two rockets slammed into the southern town of Sderot some 12 hours after militants blew up an army post in the Gaza Strip, killing one soldier and wounding five others.

At least three Palestinians were also killed in the latest spiral of violence in the area, where Israel and militants have been locked in a fight to claim victory before implementation of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza pullout plan.

It was the first time makeshift rockets fired from Gaza, which usually cause no serious injuries, had caused fatalities in Israel. Mr Sharon planned to hold security consultations later in the day, an official said.

Izz
el-Deen al-Qassam, the armed wing of the militant Hamas group, claimed responsibility for an attack that fuelled worst-case scenarios in Israel of rockets slamming into its southern towns after a Gaza withdrawal.
— Reuters

Pasadena, June 28
Two decades and $ 3.3 billion in the making, an international exploration of Saturn begins this week when a spacecraft slips through a gap in the planet’s shimmering rings and arcs into orbit.

After a seven-year, 3.5 billion km journey, the Cassini spacecraft will fire its engine on Wednesday night to slow down, allowing itself to be captured by Saturn’s gravity.

The manoeuvre will inaugurate a four-year, 76-orbit tour of the giant planet and some of its 31 known moons, including the huge Titan.

To scientists, Saturn and its rings are a model of the disk of gas and dust that initially surrounded the sun, and they hope the mission offers important clues about how the planets formed.

Shortly after entering the orbit, Cassini will act on its best chance to photograph the rings that have entranced astronomers for centuries.

“We’ll never be that close to the rings as immediately after the insertion,” said Mr Charles
Elachi, Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and team leader for Cassini’s radar instrument.

Cassini, laden with a dozen instruments, also carries a probe named Huygens that will be launched into the murky atmosphere of Titan.
— AP

BRIEFLY

BUSH TOPS HATE LIST
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians dislike US President George W. Bush more than any other world leader by a huge margin, according to an opinion poll published on Monday. Bush topped the hate stakes with 54 per cent of the vote against 12 per cent for the second-placed Israeli leader, Ariel Sharon, and just 5 per cent for ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the survey showed. The poll was conducted by the International Islamic University of Malaysia Research Centre, local media said.
— AFP

CIA INDICTED FOR 9/11
NEW YORK: The 9/11 Commission staff has concluded that the terror attacks were probably preventable and that lapses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were primarily responsible for those, a media report said on Monday. A report due out next month from the Senate Intelligence Committee is also expected to castigate the CIA over several pre-war mistakes, Newsweek reports.
— PTI